its waters with those of the ocean. Such is the majesty of Theodosius. His soul, calm and serene in the midst of vast projects, rises over the caprices of fortune, as Olympus, rearing itself above the clouds, hears the storms and thunders which echo along its girdle "." A still more instructive illustration presented by Castera. "Behold what makes great writers. Those, who pretend to give us nothing but the fruit of their own growth, soon fail, like rivulets which dry up in summer. Far different are those which receive, in their course, the tribute of a hundred and a hundred rivers: and which, even in the dog-days, carry mighty waves triumphantly to the ocean b"

Guicciardini says, that by numberless examples it is proved, that human affairs are as subject to fluctuation as waters, agitated by the wind. Montesquieu has several instances. Thus Charles XII. having left Sweden to conquer Russia in Poland, exposed his own kingdom, by enabling his enemy to make settlements along the Baltic; "therefore," says Montesquieud, "Sweden resembled a river whose waters are cut off at the fountain head, in order to change its course." Again: . "A fear of the Persians supported the laws of Greece. Carthage and Rome were alarmed, and strengthened by each other. Strange-that the greater security those states enjoyed, the more, like stagnated waters, they were subject to corruption."

THE NIGER.

WITH these and similar associations continually floating in the imagination, how delightful were it, in the season of autumn, to listen to the melody of innumerable birds, animating the immense forests, which bound the country between the Ba Bing and the Ba Bee, two tributaries of the Senegala; presenting scenes rugged and grand, beyond all power of description. What interesting reflections, too, are excited by the mere mention of the Congo and the Niger! The former, unknown in its source: the latter, till lately, in its termination. D'Anville and Rennel believed, that the Niger lost itself in the Wangara and Ghana; Hornemann, Jackson, and other writers, esteemed it a branch of the Niled. Reichard believed, that it emptied itself into the Gulf of Guinea, by the name of Formosa; while Park and Maxwelle were strongly impressed with the belief, that the Niger and the Congo were the same river. Park was so convinced of this, that he undertook a journey into the interior of Africa, in order, if possible, to prove it: and having reached the Niger, which the natives say flows to the rising sun, he proceeded some way beyond the Lake Wangara; where all authentic trace of him is lost. But it has been supposed, that he was seized upon the Niger, and taken to Haoussa, where, being detained two years, he died of a fever. Reichard believed,

a Park's Second Journey.

b For D'Anville's Memoir on the Rivers of the Interior of Africa, vide Mém. Acad. Inscrip. tom. xxvi.

C

Appendix to Park's Travels, 4to. p. lxxvii. Also Proceedings of the African Association, vol. 1. p. 533.

Lucan says, that Nature concealed the origin of this river, in order that it should never be seen as a rivulet :

Arcanum Naturæ caput non protulit ulli,

Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre.

And Bernini, designing to show the obscurity of its origin, covered the head of its statue, at Rome, with a veil.

e Letter to Sir William Keir, July 20, 1804.

that the Niger, after passing Wangara, took a southerly direction, till it approached the Gulf of Guinea; where, dividing itself after the manner of the Rhine and the Ganges, it discharged itself into the Atlantic by several channels; of which the Formosa is the western branch, and the Rio del Rey the eastern. The whole of this supposition rested merely upon conjecture; yet there were many reasons to render it quite as probable as the hypothesis of Park and Maxwell.

Pliny, Strabo, Hornemann, Jackson, Burckhardt, Ritchie, and Mollien, associated the Niger with the western branch of the Nile, called the White River: thus making a communication between Timbuctoo and Grand Cairo; a voyage which, Jackson says, was absolutely performed by seventeen negroes, in 1780, in the space of fourteen months. To this two difficulties were opposed. First, that the inundations of the two rivers rose precisely at the same season of the year, and fell nearly at the same time. If they were the same river, it might be contended, that the inundations of the Nile would last a considerable time longer than those of the Niger; as the waters had to travel more than a thousand miles. And, secondly, that the Niger, in that instance, would flow up hill for Bruce states, that Abyssinia is so elevated a country, that, from barometrical observation, he calculated the source of the Nile, in Gojam, to be upwards of two miles above the level of the sea; whereas the Niger is not

a

Savary says, that the Ethiopians of his time believed, that the branch of the Nile, known by the name of Aserac, or the Blue River, traversed the African continent from east to west; and, after joining the Niger, flowed into the Atlantic.—Letters, vol. 1. 108. A writer in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica states his opinion, “that the great river course, which stretches across Africa, consists of two rivers, to both of which the name of Niger has been given: that one of these flows eastward, by Sego and Timbuctoo; the other westward, through Wangara and Cassina; and that the two rivers, at some intermediate point, not far from the modern position of Houssa, unite in a common receptacle."-Article Africa, p. 103.

b Vol. 3. p. 642. 652. 712.

more than one-third of that height above the level of the Atlantic.

These objections, however, were met by the probability, that Bruce's calculation is erroneous. In respect to the coincidence of inundation, some endeavoured to account for it on the principle, that the Nile would be soon exhausted, if it were not joined by the waters of the Niger. Bruce says, it would be dry eight months in the year, unless it were joined by the Abiad, which alone enables the Nile to keep a regular stream. Added to this, it was stated, that almost all the Arabs of Africa were of opinion, that the Niger of the Soudan was the same river as the Nile of Egypt: and when Hutchinson said to the Moors, that the Niger was lost in a large lake, they answered, "God made all rivers to run to the sea: you say that small rivers go there: the Quolla (the Niger) is the largest in the world; and why should it not go there also?"

b

a

Upon the loss of Park, another expedition was fitted out, varying in point, under the direction of Captain Tuckey. As Park had begun with the Niger, Tuckey began with the Congo. Up this river the tide runs more than 140 miles; and 280 miles above Cape Padron it wears a most majestic appearance; being four miles wide, and its scenery not inferior to that of the Thames. Flowing with a gentle current, the natives declared, they knew no impediment to its navigation higher up but that the river divided into two branches: that to the north-east was only obstructed by a ledge of rocks; which a canoe could pass with safety, though with some difficulty.

:

It is matter of great regret, that Captain Tuckey was unable to proceed farther: but, from many corresponding circumstances, he was persuaded, that the main body of the

a

Eschylus (in Prometheo) calls the Upper Nile the "Nigris."

b Burckhardt, p. 408. 4to.

It was once believed to divide itself into three great rivers: the Rio Grande, the Gambia, and the Senegal.

J

river did not proceed from Southern Africa, where everything was entirely parched; but from the North: more especially as rains had prevailed in that quarter for five or six months : whereas, it had been the dry season southward of the Line. He believed, therefore, from these and other data, that the Congo issues from some large lake, or chain of lakes, considerably to the northward of the Line. That the Congo and Niger were one, derived, also, some confirmation from the similarity of their interior names. For the Niger is called ZADI at Wassanah; and ZAD eastward of Timbuctoo; the Congo is also called ENZADDI at Embomma.

The chief objection to this theory resolved itself into the difficulty of conceiving, that the Niger could flow between a great chain of mountains like the Kong, anciently called the Mountains of the Moon. It has certainly one unequalled circumstance attending it, viz., that of running in an almost perpetual state of flood; and of discharging at its mouth more than ten times the quantity of water that the Ganges does; being 4,000,000a cubic feet in a second of time. The ebbing of the tide, therefore, makes but little impression upon it; it runs at a rate of six or seven miles an hour; and rolls its waters some leagues out to sea".

a Quart. Rev. xxv. p. 141.

b Mr. Reichard, a German, suggested the termination of the Niger by several mouths, of which the Formosa forms one, in the Bight of Benin; and this hypothesis was warmly supported by Mr. M'Queen*.

Since the publication of this work, the problem has been set at rest by RICHARD and JOHN LANDER, who, in an open boat, sailed from Yaoovie to the termination of the river in the Bight of Biafra. The history of this voyage is exceedingly interesting :-" From Lever, all the way down to the ocean, the Niger is a broad and noble stream, varying from one to six, but most commonly between two and three miles in breadth. The banks in some places are flat and marshy, but elsewhere present the most pleasing aspects; being described as ' embellished with mighty trees and elegant shrubs, clad in thick and luxuriant foliage, some of lively green, others of darker hues; and little

* Vid. his Geogr. and Com. View of North Central Africa; containing a particular account of the course and termination of the great river Niger in the tlantic Ocean. 1821.